Federal Court Has the Power

¶ … federal court has the power to determine the legality of a challenged action as long as the government in question has not taken steps to make that type of action illegal. Furthermore, the city enacted a similar ordinance, which demonstrated its intention to continue the action in question.

Piper would lose on her claims of judicial immunity. The doctrine of judicial immunity only applies to judges engaged in their official capacity. Although attorneys are officers of the court, they are not judges and cannot claim judicial immunity. However, if Piper interposed other defenses, she might be able to defeat Aramy's lawsuit.

The political questions doctrine requires several different hurdles. The first hurdle is whether the Constitution has specifically given power over the issue in question to a certain branch of the government. The Constitution gives Congress the power to create a uniform rule of naturalization, but does not mention anything about specialized acts like the Nationality Act of 1940. Furthermore, the intervention by the Attorney General indicates that Congress did not have the final ability to act regarding the Nationality Act of 1940, which means that the issue cannot be considered a nonjusticiable political question.

8. While personal opinion indicates that Judge Stump should not be considered immune under the circumstances, research reveals that the doctrine of absolute judicial immunity provided him with immunity in the described suit. The reason given was that under the doctrine of judicial immunity, judges are absolutely immune from suit for any action undertaken in an official capacity, regardless of whether those actions are tortuous, malicious, or illegal.

Week 5

2. First, the Parkers were contractually obligated to pay the late fees because the fees were not exorbitant and were part of the parties' lease contract. However, unless the lease contract specifically says that the late fees could be charged as additional rent, then the landlord could not consider the late fees additional rent. If the late fees cannot be considered additional rent, then the Parker's failure to pay the late fees cannot be used as a basis to evict the Parkers.